Blazing Across the Pecos (1948)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Excellent but underrated film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Copyright 17 June 1948 by Columbia Pictures Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 1 July 1948. U.K. release: September 1952. Not theatrically released in Australia. 6 reels. 55 minutes. U.K. release title: UNDER ARREST.SYNOPSIS: Gambling czar's efforts to seize control of the town are foiled by the Durango Kid.COMMENT: Above average Durango Kid western. There's plenty of action including a stagecoach chase with exciting running inserts and some good stunt-work (Jock Mahoney who has a brief two-or-three-line role doubles for the Kid) and some spectacular Indians-on-the-warpath stock footage. The patter-type musical numbers rendered by Mr Burnette and Red Arnall are very pleasant too, and Mr Burnette's foolery is fairly amusing. Charles Starrett does his usual competent job and we liked Charles Wilson's rubber-faced villain. Nazarro's direction is a cut above his usual standard and production values are generally adequate. Despite his prominence in the cast list, Thomas Jackson has only a minor role, the bulk of the support work being carried by Jack Ingram as Buckshot and Paul Campbell as Jim Traynor, neither of whom figure in the credits at all!OTHER VIEWS: A gambler wants to build a private empire out of Pecos Flats, so he bribes a band of Indians to terrorize the townsfolk and raid the wagon trains. Of course the Durango Kid sorts him out in time. Much the usual Starrett standard western, with plenty of pace and little subtlety. - E. Victor Dyer.

"Blazing Across the Pecos" starts out promisingly enough with an Indian attack on a trading post but soon gives way to its small budget and aging villains.Mayor Ace Brockway (Charles Wilson) is trying to drive rival Matt Carter (Thomas Jackson) out of business by having his trading post attacked by Chief Bear Claw (Chief Thundercloud). The Chief is being supplied with rifles by Brockway. The Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) discovers a hidden Indian costume and a saddle ornament discarded by Brockway henchman Buckshot Thomas (Jack Ingram). Durango you see is trying to discover who is behind the raids.Later as Steve Blake, he manages to get appointed Deputy Sheriff under that fearless lawman Smiley Burnette and begins to investigate. Blake manages to foil assassination attempts by such fearless killers as Gunsmoke Ballard (Frank McCarroll). As Durango, he gains the support of newspaper editor Jim Traynor (Paul Campbell) and Carter's daughter Lola (Patricia White). The army buys up Carter's cattle for $20K which allows him to pay for much needed supplies for the settlers. Brockway gets Bear Claw to attack the supply train in return for 100 rifles, however the rifles are taken by Durango and.......................This film owes most of it's action sequences to stock footage first the attack on the fort then the raid of the supply train and lastly a cattle stampede. There are no fist fights other than the one in silhouette in the saloon between Starrett and Ingram. And the ending...no chase and no shoot out, what a disappointment. The supporting cast is below average. I can't say that I've ever heard of Charles Wilson or Frank McCarroll both who were too old for their parts.Patricia White later became Patricia Barry and went on to a lengthy career in both movies and television. Jock (Jack) Mahoney who doubled Starrett as the Durango Kid in the action scenes (of which there are few), gets to play a small role in the film. Musical group Red Arnell and The Western Aces liven things up with a couple of numbers as does Burnette complete with his frog voice.And look out Durango, Gene Autry is on his way to the studio to eat up even more of your budgets.

If you had seen as many Durango Kid westerns as you said you did, you should have realized that these were designed for kids some sixty years ago. Barry Shipman who wrote several of the screenplays admitted that they were written to a formula and as such the plots did tend to become a bit stereotyped. Frankly, we didn't care. We were there for a afternoon of fun and excitement where we could scream and yell to our hearts content without too much adult supervision. Obviously if you had been in the audience as an adult, we would have thought it was a little strange. The reason that the print quality is so bad is that Columbia cranked these things out on a budget. They were not meant to last several decades and in fact, many have disintegrated through the years because of poor storage. What I can't understand is if you were bored by the film, why didn't you turn it off. That way, you could have spent the rest of your hour more constructively. Incidentally, Charles Starrett hails from Athol, Massachusetts, whose family owned a machine tool business.

I have seen several Durango Kid westerns over the past few months on the Western Channel and they are usually somewhat entertaining with good writing and with a few twists. If this had been the first one that I had ever seen I would have never bothered to see any others. The plot was like a child's western and it lead up to nothing. What did not help was the unusually poor print quality. I wish I could have that hour of my life back.